Elizabeth+Gies


 * SUMMARY: On June 19, 1908, 27-year-old Elizabeth Geis died in Philadelphia from complications of an abortion most likely perpetrated by Dr. William H. Wilson.**

On June 19, 1908, undertaker Thomas Graham went to the house of William C. Patterson in West Philadelphia. There he picked up the body of Patterson's 27-year-old sister-in-law, Elizabeth "Bess" Alexander Geis. The young woman, Graham was told, had died that day of Bright's disease.

Elizabeth's brother, Leslie Alexander, knew that Bess had not died from Bright's disease. He went to the police, telling them that she had died from a botched abortion and demanding that they arrest Dr. William H. Heck, who had cared for Elizabeth during her final illness.

The investigation was complicated, and in some ways derailed, on June 26, when Wilson died after drinking poisoned ale that had been sent to him via an express office. Police theorized that Bess's husband, Frederick Geis, Jr., had poisoned Heck in revenge for having caused his wife's death.

Police questioned Heck. He said that Bess's husband had summoned him to the Edward Haasz residence, saying that his wife was pregnant and having convulsions and kidney trouble. This was on the morning of June 18. Heck said that he had given Bess some medication, then came back the next morning and found that her condition had deteriorated. "I did what I could for her," he said, "but when I was called four and a half hours later she was dead. I was told that a child had been born before she passed away."

"Her husband seemed to be very excited, due, in my opinion, to his belief that a criminal operation had indeed caused his wife's death. Had I known that when I was first called in on the case I certainly would not have had anything to do with it. There were intimations that the woman did not wish to become a mother because her marriage had been clandestine."

Heck, described in newspapers as "a reputable physician," wrote on Bess's death certificate that she had died of uremic poisoning aggravated by Bright's disease, though he admitted that he suspected that she had been injured in an abortion. He based his diagnosis for the death certificate, he said, on the medical history given by Frederick. Dr. Heck said that he was perplexed as to why somebody had given his name to Mrs. Geis as the person to call for care if she took ill after her abortion.

Haasz, one of Frederick's co-workers at Curtis Publishing Company, said that Bess had died in his home on June 6 after being attended by Dr. William H. Wilson, not by Dr. Heck. Haasz's wife said the same thing. Police later determined that Mr. and Mrs. Haasz had been confused about the date of Bess's death because they were accustomed to the European method of writing dates. They had seen 6/19/08 being written on a document and had thought that the 6 designated the sixth day of the month rather than the sixth month.

Police found it suspicious that Bess's body had been removed from the Haasz and taken to undertaker Sarah Elliot, who had already buried the baby under the name Elizabeth A. Wilson, child of Fred Wilson and Elizabeth Alexander Wilson. "in an obscure corner of the Franklin Cemetery." Elliot sent Bess's body to another undertaker, George Graham, who buried Bess in Mt. Moriah Cemetery.

Frederick Gies and Leslie Alexander were good friends, and remained so even after Bess died. They even rode together to the cemetery for Bess's burial. Leslie and his father, John W. Alexander, visited Gies after he was arrested, and appeared to the police to be very concerned about him. As father and son left the jail, they were pestered by news photographers, and hid their faces with their hats. Leslie kicked the camera out of the hand of a photographer who chased them and continued trying to take pictures.

All of Fred's friends and relatives, including his brother, Charles, came to his defense. Charles indicated that he hadn't known about the marriage until after Bess died.

Fred and Bess had secretly married in Delaware during May, giving false names. Fred told Bess's father, John W. Alexander, that he'd married Bess "to save her good name and because I loved her." He said that they'd married under assumed names so that she'd not lose her teaching job, since at that time female teachers were not permitted to be married women. He also said, "I do not propose to discuss her trouble or mine with a police official or any one else. It is too sacred a subject to me."

Fred's only comment to the press was, "I do not wish to discuss my predicament, but I do want to thank you for the fair way in which the newspapers have treated me since my arrest."

A graduate of the Girls' High School in 1901 and later of the Girls' Normal school, Mrs. Gies was considered a teacher of exceptional ability and promise, and her death was a great shock to her old class-mates and to her many friends in the southern part of the city. There she was born and reared, a light-hearted girl, who was extremely fond of books.

The police arrested Fred, a press room foreman at Curtis Publishing Company, because they believed that he had given Wilson the poison as revenge for having killed Bess. That theory turned out to have been entirely mistaken, since the poisoned ale had been sent to Wilson before Bess's death.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. For more about abortion and abortion deaths in the first years of the 20th century, see[| Abortion Deaths 1900-1909].

For more on pre-legalization abortion, see [|The Bad Old Days of Abortion] Sources:

Sources:
 * "Arrested on Suspicion", //Daily Journal//, Telluride, Colorado, July 6, 1908
 * "Murder Suspect Close to Express Office, is Claim," unlabeled news clipping.
 * "Police Made Arrest in Wilson Murder Case," Associated Press, July 6, 1908
 * "Press Room Foreman of the Curtis Company the Suspect," //Harrisburg (PA) Patriot//, July 6, 1908
 * "Police Admit Gies Case Collapses," unlabeled news clipping



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